Through Imperial Eyes

Chapter 3

Once (Y/N) arrived on the Chimaera, she did her best to avoid the few crew members that were still up. She walked along the empty corridors, hoping she could reach her room without having to explain to anyone why she was barefoot, her hair all disheveled and her arm covered in blood. She would definitely need some bacta, but for now she just wanted to get back to her quarters and be done with this night.

She turned a corner and instantly froze in the middle of the hallway. Right in front of her stood a tall blue man in a stark white uniform, his brow raising in surprise as he looked away from his datapad.

"(Y/N)? What happened?" she heard Thrawn ask her.

"Nothing, Admiral" was the only thing she managed to say. Cursing internally for her stupid answer, she tried to make her way around him as quickly as possible.

"Lieutenant (L/N)."

Although he had kept his usual calm tone, there was so much underlying authority in his voice that the young woman couldn't help but stop again. He was her superior after all. She turned around and met his glowing red eyes. She swallowed hard when he quickly looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her injured arm for a split-second before staring back into hers.

"I just had a little mishap back on the surface. I'm heading to my quarters to get cleaned up."

"You need medical care. Come with me." He turned slightly, motionning her to start walking with him. She complied and followed him, feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

They both walked towards the medical bay in silence, (Y/N) not knowing whether she should say anything else or not. Thrawn himself didn't seem to mind, his attention returned to his datapad. She pulled on the hem of her dress to try to cover her legs a little bit more and did her best to touch up her hair while he was concentrating on something else. Of all the people she could have crossed, it had to be him. She glanced at his tall figure as he walked a couple of paces in front of her. This evening was definitely not going the way she had planned, to say the least.

Once they had reached the medbay's entrance, Thrawn did not leave as she expected him to. He stopped and stepped aside to let her in first. She felt his hand barely brushing her lower back, guiding her inside to the nearest station. (Y/N) sat down and the medical droid soon came to look at her arm.

"That's a pretty deep cut. I will have to cauterize it before applying bacta spray. How did it happen?" it inquired.

The woman was becoming really exhausted at that point and chose to give up dismissing the incident. If she wanted to be treated properly and be done with it, she might as well be honest.

"I was attacked by some men in an alley while I was returning to the spaceport. One of them had a knife and he cut me when I fought them."

"They tried to rob you?" the droid further questioned while it was cleaning her wound.

(Y/N)'s throat tightened and she didn't answer immediately. The medical droid didn't really pay her much attention because it was busy with her injury, but Admiral Thrawn was still at the foot of the table, patiently reading. He glanced up at her when he noticed her silence and she shifted her gaze away from him. Her thoughts went back to the attack, when that man held her, muffling her cry for help, when she was powerless while he forced himself on her... Her body tensed painfully and her face reddened a little but she managed to get a hold of her thoughts and focused back on the question.

"Yeah, exactly." She tensed again when she felt her skin being cauterized by the small laser. She kept her eyes on the droid for the rest of the procedure and it didn't ask any other questions.